I don't consider myself an artist. I've worked on a lot of graphics in the past, but a lot of what I do is just tracing or reverse-engineering--that's why I could use some real artist input on one of the issues I'm dealing with right now.

I'm trying to make some base character sprites modeled after the ones in Illusion of Gaia. The game's perspective is a little tricky--I'm not sure if you'd call it bird's-eye view, but it's definitely closer to top-down than what I'm used to. I started by drwing the Will sprite at twice the size for practice, and then tried to create a base sprite for that sort of character (I took a lot of influence from the LPC base sprite sheet for feature design).  This is hwere I run into some trouble.

There's something off about the stomach and leg regions.  My mind tells me I need to bring the stomach lower, but that doesn't make sense--the belt would be wrapping around the stomach and naval region, just below the chest.  I'm also having a hard time gauging whether the legs are too short or long.

Secondly is an issue regarding the walking animations.  This is probably also because of the perspective, but I noticed that they go against everything I've practiced up until now: Usually there's a slight downward bob when the legs are outstretched, and a rise when they come together.  In these examples, it seems to be the opposite--surprisingly, even for side-view.

I started making the walk animation the way I normally would, which is fine for that other perspective but not what I'm going for here.  When I try to use the Will sprites as a reference for movement, I end up making one leg look entirely too long while the other one is short.  So, I'm wondering if there's something here I'm just not seeing with how the lower half of the body needs to be shaped.

It's my first post here so I should get a few things out of the way.  I'm legally blind, but as of now that doesn't stop me from working on graphics.  It does make these things take a lot of time in comparison to other artists, and this isn't a project where I intend to spearhead the entire graphical initiative (I'm already doing music and coding).  That being said, I want to be able to make enough to have a decent prototype in the near future.  I've been trying pixel art for almost a year now, so I know enough that I can sort of fudge my way through it, but it's definitely not my primary talent.  I know all about banding, pillow shading and that stuff, but right now I'm more concerned with getting the shape of this character down first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't make those sprites in the walking illustration, those are the ones from Illusion of Gaia.  I was pointing out how they seemed wrong to me.

For more clarity, here's an animation I've been attempting versus the SNES one:



The only reason Will appears shorter during the passing stage in this animation is because, relative to the shadow, both of his legs are higher up than in the contact frames.  During contact, he's stepping down into the shadow, and he's actually taller as a result of this.    This kind of movement doesn't make sense if you're looking straight at him (which is how some RPG sprites tend to do their south-facing view), but I don't think they're walking at the same viewing angle.

(Side note: anything I can do to make it not look like he's sliding across the floor so much?)


Edited by Tixus - 31 March 2015 at 12:15pm